Systems and methods for transaction-specific rewards negotiation

ABSTRACT

A method of providing rewards-based payment method selection, the method including: storing payment account numbers (PANs) associated with a tokenized financial account number (FAN), each PAN being associated with a purchase-based rewards program; receiving user rewards preferences; receiving, from a merchant POS terminal, a primary transaction authorization request; generating, based on the primary transaction authorization request and the FAN, a plurality of provisional transaction authorization requests corresponding to one of the PANs; transmitting, to one or more payment authorization servers, the plurality of provisional transaction authorization requests; receiving a plurality of provisional transaction authorizations corresponding to one of the PANs and including a respective rewards bid; selecting, based on the user rewards preferences and the respective rewards bids, a preferred PAN corresponding to a provisional transaction authorization; and transmitting, to the merchant POS terminal and based on the preferred PAN, a transaction authorization message to authorize the attempted transaction.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a division of, and claims priority to, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/182,657, filed Nov. 7, 2018, entitled, “SYSTEMSAND METHODS FOR TRANSACTION-SPECIFIC REWARDS NEGOTIATION,” the entirecontents of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for providingrewards-based payment method selection, and more particularly providinga system for allowing a plurality of financial transaction card issuersto bid on rewards granted to a cardholder in association with apurchase.

BACKGROUND

It is common practice for issuers of financial transaction cards, suchas credits cards, to host associated rewards programs that may providecash back, air miles, redeemable points, or other such value to acustomer based on the customer's use of the card. For example, a creditcard may offer 1% cash back on every purchase made using the card, whichmay accrue over time and may be redeemed by the customer in the form ofa check, a deposit or a credit to an account balance. Some credit cardissuers may offer tiered rewards or rewards that are tied to specificmerchants or types of merchants. For example, a credit card may offer 1%cashback on general purchases, but 3% cash back for purchases made agrocery stores and gas stations. Some credit cards may have rewardsprograms in which the rewards change over time, by for example, inaddition to offering 1% back on all purchases generally, offering 5%cash back on purchases made a gas stations during a first specifiedcalendar period and then upon entering a second specified calendarperiod the 5% cash back may change such that it is now awarded inassociation with purchases made a movie theaters (and no longer gasstations). Credit card issuers generally offer such rewards programs inan attempt to both gain and retain customer use of a particular card.Accordingly, there is a significant amount of competition between cardissuers to entice customers to enroll and use their credit cards.

Although there is significant competition to obtain and retain suchcredit card customers, some customers may be more desirable to obtainand retain than others. For example, factors such as the frequencyand/or amount of a customer's purchases, the types of merchants acustomer typically frequents, and the amount (if any) of a balance acustomer carries on their account from month to month may all impact acard issuer's fees obtained from use of the card. In some instances,card issuers may have different arrangements with different merchantssuch that a card issuer may receive greater fees per dollar spent at onetype of merchant versus another type of merchant. Therefore, it may bebeneficial for a card issuer to be able to offer personalized rewards toindividual customers based on the customer's past financial behavior.Furthermore, because many customers may have multiple credit cards withdiffering rewards programs, it may also be beneficial for a card issuerto be able to offer customized rewards based on individual purchases atparticular merchants to entice a customer to use their card versus thecard of a competitor on a particular purchase. Moreover, in a case wherea customer has multiple credit cards with differing rewards programs, itmay be beneficial to a customer to allow the customer to receivecustomized rewards offers from multiple card issuers in association witha purchase so that the customer may maximize their preferred rewardsreturns.

Accordingly, there is a need for improved systems and methods to allowfinancial transaction card issuers to offer customized rewards to anindividual on a purchase by purchase basis. Embodiments of the presentdisclosure are directed to this and other considerations.

SUMMARY

Disclosed embodiments provide systems and methods for providingrewards-based payment method selection.

Consistent with the disclosed embodiments, a method of providingrewards-based payment method selection. The method may include storing aplurality of payment account numbers in association with a tokenizedfinancial account number. Each payment account number of the pluralityof payment account numbers may be associated with a purchase-basedrewards program. The method may include receiving user rewardspreferences associated with the tokenized financial account number. Themethod may include receiving a primary transaction authorization requestgenerated by the merchant POS terminal from a merchant POS terminal andbased on an attempted transaction made in association with the tokenizedfinancial account number. The method may include generating a pluralityof provisional transaction authorization requests based on the primarytransaction authorization request and the plurality of financial accountnumbers. Each of the plurality of provisional transaction authorizationrequests may correspond to one of the plurality of payment accountnumbers. The method may include transmitting the plurality ofprovisional transaction authorization requests to one or more paymentauthorization servers. The method may include receiving, from the one ormore payment authorization servers, a plurality of provisionaltransaction authorizations. Each of the plurality of provisionaltransaction authorizations may correspond to one of the plurality ofpayment account numbers and may include a respective rewards bidassociated with the attempted transaction. The method may includeselecting a preferred payment account number based on the user rewardspreferences and the respective rewards bids associated with theplurality of provisional transaction authorizations. The preferredpayment account number may be one of the plurality of payment accountnumbers corresponding to a provisional transaction authorization. Themethod may further include transmitting a transaction authorizationmessage to authorize the attempted transaction to the merchant POSterminal and based on a provisional transaction authorization of theplurality of provisional transaction authorizations corresponding to thepreferred payment account number.

Consistent with the disclosed embodiments, systems and non-transitorycomputer-readable mediums for providing rewards-based payment methodselection are also disclosed.

Further features of the disclosed design, and the advantages offeredthereby, are explained in greater detail hereinafter with reference tospecific embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings, whereinlike elements are indicated be like reference designators.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are notnecessarily drawn to scale, and which are incorporated into andconstitute a portion of this disclosure, illustrate variousimplementations and aspects of the disclosed technology and, togetherwith the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosedtechnology. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an exemplary system that may be used to providerewards-based payment method selection;

FIG. 2 is a component diagram of an exemplary rewards management device;

FIG. 3 is a component diagram of an exemplary computing device;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for providing rewards-basedpayment method selection;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of another exemplary method for providingrewards-based payment method selection; and

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of yet another exemplary method for providingrewards-based payment method selection.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some implementations of the disclosed technology will be described morefully with reference to the accompanying drawings. This disclosedtechnology may, however, be embodied in many different forms and shouldnot be construed as limited to the implementations set forth herein. Thecomponents described hereinafter as making up various elements of thedisclosed technology are intended to be illustrative and notrestrictive. Many suitable components that would perform the same orsimilar functions as components described herein are intended to beembraced within the scope of the disclosed electronic devices andmethods. Such other components not described herein may include, but arenot limited to, for example, components developed after development ofthe disclosed technology.

It is also to be understood that the mention of one or more method stepsdoes not preclude the presence of additional method steps or interveningmethod steps between those steps expressly identified. Similarly, it isalso to be understood that the mention of one or more components in adevice or system does not preclude the presence of additional componentsor intervening components between those components expressly identified.

The disclosed embodiments are directed to systems and methods forproviding rewards-based payment method selection. In one embodiment, amethod may include storing a plurality of payment account numbers inassociation with a tokenized financial account number. Each paymentaccount number of the plurality of payment account numbers may beassociated with a purchase-based rewards program. The method may includereceiving user rewards preferences associated with the tokenizedfinancial account number. The method may include receiving a primarytransaction authorization request generated by the merchant POS terminalfrom a merchant POS terminal and based on an attempted transaction madein association with the tokenized financial account number. The methodmay include generating a plurality of provisional transactionauthorization requests based on the primary transaction authorizationrequest and the plurality of financial account numbers. Each of theplurality of provisional transaction authorization requests maycorrespond to one of the plurality of payment account numbers. Themethod may include transmitting the plurality of provisional transactionauthorization requests to one or more payment authorization servers. Themethod may include receiving, from the one or more payment authorizationservers, a plurality of provisional transaction authorizations. Each ofthe plurality of provisional transaction authorizations may correspondto one of the plurality of payment account numbers and may include arespective rewards bid associated with the attempted transaction. Themethod may include selecting a preferred payment account number based onthe user rewards preferences and the respective rewards bids associatedwith the plurality of provisional transaction authorizations. Thepreferred payment account number may be one of the plurality of paymentaccount numbers corresponding to a provisional transactionauthorization. The method may further include transmitting a transactionauthorization message to authorize the attempted transaction to themerchant POS terminal and based on a provisional transactionauthorization of the plurality of provisional transaction authorizationscorresponding to the preferred payment account number.

In another embodiment, a method for providing rewards-based paymentmethod selection is provided. The method may include storing a pluralityof payment account numbers in association with a tokenized financialaccount number. Each payment account number of the plurality of paymentaccount numbers may be associated with a purchase-based rewards program.The method may include receiving, from a merchant POS terminal, aprimary transaction authorization request generated by the merchant POSterminal based on an attempted transaction made in association with thetokenized financial account number. The method may include generating,based on the primary transaction authorization request and the pluralityof financial account numbers, a plurality of provisional transactionauthorization requests. Each of the plurality of provisional transactionauthorization requests may correspond to one of the plurality of paymentaccount numbers. The method may include transmitting the plurality ofprovisional transaction authorization requests to one or more paymentauthorization servers. The method may include receiving a plurality ofprovisional transaction authorizations from the one or more paymentauthorization servers. Each of the plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations may correspond to one of the plurality of payment accountnumbers. The method may include receiving, from the one or more paymentauthorization servers, a plurality of rewards bids. Each rewards bid ofthe plurality of rewards bids may be associated with a respectivepayment account number of the plurality of payment account numbers thatcorresponds to one of the plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations. The method may include transmitting one or more of theplurality of rewards bids to a user device. The method may includereceiving, from the user device, an indication of a selection of apreferred payment account number from among the plurality of paymentaccount numbers. The preferred payment account number may correspond toa payment account number that is associated with one of the one or moreof the plurality of rewards bids. The method may further includetransmitting a transaction authorization message to authorize theattempted transaction to the merchant POS terminal and based on aprovisional transaction authorization corresponding to the preferredpayment account number.

In another embodiment, a method for providing rewards-based paymentmethod selection is provided. The method may include storing a pluralityof payment account numbers in association with a tokenized financialaccount number. Each payment account number of the plurality of paymentaccount numbers may be associated with a purchase-based rewards program.The method may include receiving, from a merchant POS terminal, aprimary transaction authorization request generated by the merchant POSterminal based on an attempted transaction made in association with thetokenized financial account number. The method may include generating,based on the primary transaction authorization request and the pluralityof financial account numbers, a plurality of provisional transactionauthorization requests. Each of the plurality of provisional transactionauthorization requests may correspond to one of the plurality of paymentaccount numbers. The method may include transmitting the plurality ofprovisional transaction authorization requests to one or more paymentauthorization servers. The method may include receiving, from the one ormore payment authorization servers, a plurality of provisionaltransaction authorizations. Each of the plurality of provisionaltransaction authorizations may correspond to a respective paymentaccount number of the plurality of payment account numbers. The methodmay include transmitting, to the merchant POS terminal and based on theplurality of provisional transaction authorizations, a temporarytransaction authorization message to authorize the attemptedtransaction. The method may include receiving a transaction executionmessage from the merchant POS terminal indicating that the attemptedtransaction has been executed. The method may include receiving aplurality of rewards bids associated with the payment account numberscorresponding to the plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations. The method may include transmitting the plurality ofrewards bids corresponding to the provisional transaction authorizationsto a user device. The method may further include responsive toreceiving, from the user device and after receiving the transactionexecution message, an indication of a selection of a preferred paymentaccount number from among the plurality of payment account numbers thatcorrespond to the rewards bids, transmitting a transaction settlementmessage to the merchant POS terminal and based on a provisionaltransaction authorization corresponding to the preferred payment accountnumber.

Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments of thedisclosed technology, examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings and disclosed herein. Wherever convenient, thesame references numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer tothe same or like parts.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an exemplary transaction rewards managementsystem 100 that may be configured to perform one or more processes thatmay allow a plurality of financial transaction card issuers to providerewards bids in relation to one or more transactions. For example, asdescribed in greater detail below, in response to an attemptedtransaction (e.g., a purchase) made by a customer using a firstfinancial transaction card (e.g., a first credit card) at a merchant,the system 100 may generate multiple payment authorization requests thecorrespond to multiple different financial transaction cards and/orpayment accounts that are each associated with a respective rewardsprogram. In response, the system 100 may receive a plurality ofprovisional transaction authorization requests that each include acorresponding rewards bid that represents a rewards offer associatedwith the attempted transaction. The system 100 may, with or without userinput, select a particular financial transaction card or payment accountto complete the purchase, based on the rewards bids offered by therespective financial institutions associated with the various paymentoptions. In this way, the system 100 may enable financial transactioncard issuers to compete to be the selected financial transaction cardand/or payment processor used to execute the customer's attemptedtransaction. Further, the system 100 may allow the customer to specifyrewards preferences that may allow the customer to optimize the receivedrewards based on the nature of the attempted transaction. The componentsand arrangements shown in FIG. 1 are not intended to limit the disclosedembodiments as the components used to implement the disclosed processesand features may vary.

In accordance with disclosed embodiments, transaction rewards managementsystem 100 may include a rewards management device 110 in communicationwith a computing device 120 (or a plurality of computing devices 120), amerchant POS terminal 130, and a plurality of payment authorizationservers 140 a-n (collectively, payment authorization servers 140) vianetwork 150. Computing device 120 may be a mobile computing device(e.g., a smart phone, tablet computer, smart wearable device (e.g.,augmented/virtual reality headset), portable laptop computer, voicecommand device, or other mobile computing device) or a stationarycomputing device (e.g., a stationary desktop or other stationarycomputer). Computing device 120 may belong to or be provided by aconsumer, or may be borrowed, rented, or shared. In some embodiments,computing device 120 may be configured to provide one or more of anaugmented reality and a virtual reality experience to one or more users,and may be equipped with a display, speakers or other auditory devices,tactile simulators, and other devices configured to engage the user'ssenses to enhance the augmented/virtual reality experience.

In some embodiments, transaction rewards management system 100 may alsoinclude merchant POS terminal 130 that may communicate with otherdevices of system 100 via network 150. In some embodiments, merchant POSterminal 130 may communicate directly with computing device 120 (e.g.,via wired or wireless communication). Further, in some embodiments,transaction rewards management system 100 may include the plurality ofpayment authorization servers 140 a-140 n that may communicate withother devices of system 100 via network 150. According to someembodiments, each payment authorization server 140 may be associatedwith and/or controlled by a payment card issuer that may issue paymentcards (which may be alternatively referred to herein as financialtransaction cards), such as credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, andthe like, which may have an associated purchase-based rewards program.For example, a first payment card issuer may issue a credit card thatprovides cash back rewards of 2% on every purchase, a second paymentcard issuer may issue a credit card that provides cash back rewards of5% on one or more specified categories of purchases, a third paymentcard issuer may issue a credit card that provides a predetermined numberof air miles as a reward for every dollar spent on the card, and so on.Although the present disclosure refers to a plurality of paymentauthorization servers 140 (e.g., 140 a-140 n) associated with aplurality of payment card issuers, it is contemplated that in someembodiments, a single payment authorization server 140 a may servicemultiple different payment card issuers and/or different types ofpayment cards such that in some embodiments, a single paymentauthorization server 140 a may perform the functions described hereinwith respect to the plurality of payment authorization servers 140 a-140n.

Network 150 may be of any suitable type, including individualconnections via the internet such as cellular or WiFi networks. In someembodiments, network 150 may connect terminals using direct connectionssuch as radio-frequency identification (RFID), near-field communication(NFC), Bluetooth®, low-energy Bluetooth® (BLE), WiFi™, ZigBee®, ambientbackscatter communications (ABC) protocols, USB, or LAN. Because theinformation transmitted may be personal or confidential, securityconcerns may dictate one or more of these types of connections beencrypted or otherwise secured. In some embodiments, however, theinformation being transmitted may be less personal, and therefore thenetwork connections may be selected for convenience over security.

An exemplary embodiment of rewards management device 110 is shown inmore detail in FIG. 2. In some embodiments, one or more of computingdevice 120, merchant POS terminal 130 and payment authorization servers140 a-140 n may have a similar structure and components that are similarto those described with respect to rewards management device 110. Asshown, rewards management device 110 may include a processor 210, aninput/output (“I/O”) device 220, a memory 230 containing an operatingsystem (“OS”) 240 and a program 250. For example, rewards managementdevice 110 may be a single server or may be configured as a distributedcomputer system including multiple servers or computers thatinteroperate to perform one or more of the processes and functionalitiesassociated with the disclosed embodiments. In some embodiments, therewards management device 110 may further include a peripheralinterface, a transceiver, a mobile network interface in communicationwith the processor 210, a bus configured to facilitate communicationbetween the various components of the rewards management device 110, anda power source configured to power one or more components of the rewardsmanagement device 110.

A peripheral interface may include the hardware, firmware and/orsoftware that enables communication with various peripheral devices,such as media drives (e.g., magnetic disk, solid state, or optical diskdrives), other processing devices, or any other input source used inconnection with the instant techniques. In some embodiments, aperipheral interface may include a serial port, a parallel port, ageneral purpose input and output (GPIO) port, a game port, a universalserial bus (USB), a micro-USB port, a high definition multimedia (HDMI)port, a video port, an audio port, a Bluetooth port, a near-fieldcommunication (NFC) port, another like communication interface, or anycombination thereof.

In some embodiments, a transceiver may be configured to communicate withcompatible devices and ID tags when they are within a predeterminedrange. A transceiver may be compatible with one or more of:radio-frequency identification (RFID), near-field communication (NFC),Bluetooth®, low-energy Bluetooth® (BLE), WiFi™, ZigBee®, ambientbackscatter communications (ABC) protocols or similar technologies.

A mobile network interface may provide access to a cellular network, theInternet, or another wide-area network. In some embodiments, a mobilenetwork interface may include hardware, firmware, and/or software thatallows the processor(s) 210 to communicate with other devices via wiredor wireless networks, whether local or wide area, private or public, asknown in the art. A power source may be configured to provide anappropriate alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) to powercomponents.

Processor 210 may include one or more of a microprocessor,microcontroller, digital signal processor, co-processor or the like orcombinations thereof capable of executing stored instructions andoperating upon stored data. Memory 230 may include, in someimplementations, one or more suitable types of memory (e.g. such asvolatile or non-volatile memory, random access memory (RAM), read onlymemory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks,floppy disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash memory, aredundant array of independent disks (RAID), and the like), for storingfiles including an operating system, application programs (including,for example, a web browser application, a widget or gadget engine, andor other applications, as necessary), executable instructions and data.In one embodiment, the processing techniques described herein areimplemented as a combination of executable instructions and data withinthe memory 230.

Processor 210 may be one or more known processing devices, such as amicroprocessor from the Pentium™ family manufactured by Intel™ or theTurion™ family manufactured by AMD™. Processor 210 may constitute asingle core or multiple core processor that executes parallel processessimultaneously. For example, processor 210 may be a single coreprocessor that is configured with virtual processing technologies. Incertain embodiments, processor 210 may use logical processors tosimultaneously execute and control multiple processes. Processor 210 mayimplement virtual machine technologies, or other similar knowntechnologies to provide the ability to execute, control, run,manipulate, store, etc. multiple software processes, applications,programs, etc. One of ordinary skill in the art would understand thatother types of processor arrangements could be implemented that providefor the capabilities disclosed herein.

Rewards management device 110 may include one or more storage devicesconfigured to store information used by processor 210 (or othercomponents) to perform certain functions related to the disclosedembodiments. In one example, rewards management device 110 may includememory 230 that includes instructions to enable processor 210 to executeone or more applications, such as server applications, networkcommunication processes, and any other type of application or softwareknown to be available on computer systems. Alternatively, theinstructions, application programs, etc. may be stored in an externalstorage or available from a memory over a network. The one or morestorage devices may be a volatile or non-volatile, magnetic,semiconductor, tape, optical, removable, non-removable, or other type ofstorage device or tangible computer-readable medium.

In one embodiment, rewards management device 110 may include memory 230that includes instructions that, when executed by processor 210, performone or more processes consistent with the functionalities disclosedherein. Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture consistent withdisclosed embodiments are not limited to separate programs or computersconfigured to perform dedicated tasks. For example, rewards managementdevice 110 may include memory 230 that may include one or more programs250 to perform one or more functions of the disclosed embodiments.Moreover, processor 210 may execute one or more programs 250 locatedremotely from system 100. For example, system 100 may access one or moreremote programs 250, that, when executed, perform functions related todisclosed embodiments.

Memory 230 may include one or more memory devices that store data andinstructions used to perform one or more features of the disclosedembodiments. Memory 230 may also include any combination of one or moredatabases controlled by memory controller devices (e.g., server(s),etc.) or software, such as document management systems, Microsoft™ SQLdatabases, SharePoint™ databases, Oracle™ databases, Sybase™ databases,or other relational or non-relational databases. Memory 230 may includesoftware components that, when executed by processor 210, perform one ormore processes consistent with the disclosed embodiments. In someembodiments, memory 230 may include a cardholder database 260 and acustomer preferences database 270 for storing related data to enablerewards management device 110 to perform one or more of the processesand functionalities associated with the disclosed embodiments.Cardholder database 260 may include stored data relating to financialtransaction card numbers or other payment account numbers that areassociated with a customer. For example, cardholder database 260 maystore a plurality of credit card numbers that are associated with one ormore customers. In some embodiments, cardholder database 260 may alsostore one or more tokenized financial account numbers that areassociated with a customer and/or a number of financial transactioncards issued by one or more financial transaction card issuers. Forexample, a customer may have a tokenized financial account number thatmay be associated with a plurality of payment card account numbers, suchthat in response to conveying the tokenized financial account number tomerchant POS terminal 130, the customer may be presented with the optionto select one of the associated payment account numbers to execute thetransaction. For example, cardholder database 260 may store records thatindicate that a first customer has credit cards A, B, and C, which areall associated with a tokenized financial account number, such that whenthe customer conveys the tokenized financial account number to merchantPOS terminal 130 in association with an attempted transaction, thetransaction may be executed, either automatically (e.g., based onpreviously submitted preferences) or based on a user input, using one ofcredit cards A, B, or C. Similarly, in some embodiments, cardholderdatabase 260 may associate a plurality of payment account numbers of acustomer with one another so that they may be presented as alternativesin response to attempted transaction using one of them. For example, ifthe customer of the previous example swipes card A at merchant POSterminal 130, the system may determine that credit cards B and C arestored in association with card A and the system may be configured toautomatically select one of cards A, B and C for use in executing thetransaction or present the customer with the option of selecting one ofthe cards A, B or C (e.g., via a mobile application on computing device120). According to some embodiments, cardholder database 260 may alsostore rewards program information that is associated with each paymentcard or payment account number. For example, cardholder database maystore information that indicates that credit card A provides 2% cashback on all purchases, credit card B provides 5% cash back on purchasesmade at gas stations and 1% at all other merchants, and credit card Cprovides 1 air mile per dollar spent. According to some embodiments,cardholder database 260 may be updated intermittently or from time totime by reflect changes in the rewards programs of associated cards, byfor example, receiving updates from card issuer systems. Customerpreference database 270 may include stored data relating to customerpreferences for rewards. For example, customer preferences may indicatethat, with respect to rewards programs, a particular customer may value1 air mile per dollar more than 1% cash back. According to someembodiments, rewards management device 110 may access and use the storedcustomer preferences to make determinations about which purchase card touse for a transaction based on the nature and amount of the offeredrewards with respect to each purchase card. In some embodiments,customer preference database 270 may store relative values of differenttypes of rewards for a particular customer that may be updated based onmarket conditions. For example, a customer may generally prefer 1% cashback to 1 air mile per dollar, but if the price (in air miles) of airtravel is discounted (e.g., based on an airline promotion) such that therelative value of the air miles is increased, then customer preferencedatabase 260 may indicate that the customer's preference has changed tovalue 1 air mile per dollar more than 1% cash back. According to someembodiments, such preferences may be submitted directly by customer(e.g., via a mobile application on computing device 120), derived basedon a customer's responses to various survey questions, ascertainedthrough analysis of the customer's purchasing habits and/or specifiedgoals (e.g., save money to buy a car vs. save money/air miles for anairline ticket to Hawaii), or determined based on the customer's pastselection of rewards from among various options using machine learningtechniques.

Rewards management device 110 may also be communicatively connected toone or more memory devices (e.g., databases (not shown)) locally orthrough a network. The remote memory devices may be configured to storeinformation and may be accessed and/or managed by rewards managementdevice 110. By way of example, the remote memory devices may be documentmanagement systems, Microsoft™ SQL database, SharePoint™ databases,Oracle™ databases, Sybase™ databases, or other relational ornon-relational databases. Systems and methods consistent with disclosedembodiments, however, are not limited to separate databases or even tothe use of a database.

Rewards management device 110 may also include one or more I/O devices220 that may comprise one or more interfaces for receiving signals orinput from devices and providing signals or output to one or moredevices that allow data to be received and/or transmitted by rewardsmanagement device 110. For example, rewards management device 110 mayinclude interface components, which may provide interfaces to one ormore input devices, such as one or more keyboards, mouse devices, touchscreens, track pads, trackballs, scroll wheels, digital cameras,microphones, sensors, and the like, that enable rewards managementdevice 110 to receive data from one or more users (such as, for example,via computing device 120).

In exemplary embodiments of the disclosed technology, rewards managementdevice 110 may include any number of hardware and/or softwareapplications that are executed to facilitate any of the operations. Theone or more I/O interfaces may be utilized to receive or collect dataand/or user instructions from a wide variety of input devices. Receiveddata may be processed by one or more computer processors as desired invarious implementations of the disclosed technology and/or stored in oneor more memory devices.

While rewards management device 110 has been described as one form forimplementing the techniques described herein, those having ordinaryskill in the art will appreciate that other, functionally equivalenttechniques may be employed. For example, as known in the art, some orall of the functionality implemented via executable instructions mayalso be implemented using firmware and/or hardware devices such asapplication specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logicarrays, state machines, etc. Furthermore, other implementations ofrewards management device 110 may include a greater or lesser number ofcomponents than those illustrated.

Merchant POS terminal 130 may have one or more processors 132 and one ormore merchant databases 134, which may be any suitable repository ofmerchant data. Merchant POS terminal 130 may be located at a physicalmerchant POS location such as a storefront or a merchant POS terminal130 may be a website that may receive transaction payment cardinformation via user input. Information stored in merchant POS terminal130 may be accessed (e.g., retrieved, updated, and added to) via network150 by one or more devices (e.g., rewards management device 110) ofsystem 100. Merchant database 134 may store information relating toproducts and services offered by merchants such as pricing, quantity,availability, discounts, reviews, and any other such generally availableinformation that a consumer may utilize in making a purchasing decision.In some embodiments, merchant database 134 may store some or all of thesame information or types of information described with respect tocardholder database 260 and/or customer preference database 270, such asfinancial card numbers and/or payment account numbers (which may includetokenized financial account number(s)) associated with one or morecustomers and customer preferences for rewards. In some embodiments,merchant POS terminal 150 may use this information in a manner similarto that described with respect to rewards management device 110 to, forexample, generate a plurality of provisional transaction authorizationrequests to be sent to payment authorization servers 140 and/ordetermine a selection of a payment card to execute a transaction.Accordingly, although his disclosure is generally directed to rewardsmanagement device 110 interacting with payment authorization servers140, it should be understood that in some embodiments, merchant POSterminal 130 may be configured to carry out some or all of thefunctionality described herein with respect to rewards management device110. Merchant POS terminal 130 may have one or more POS devices thatcommunicate with one or more devices (e.g., computing device 120) ofsystem 100 via network 150. In some embodiments, POS devices may includeone or more sensors, image capture devices, optical scanners, barcode orQR code readers, RFID readers, and communication interfaces to allowmerchant POS terminal 130 to communicate with computing device 120(e.g., via Bluetooth®, near-field communication, Wi-Fi, an Internetconnection or the like). For example, a POS device of merchant POSterminal 130 may be capable of wirelessly receiving financialtransaction card or account information (e.g., a credit card, atokenized financial account number, or the like) from a digital walletof computing device 120. In some embodiments, a POS device of merchantPOS terminal 130 may include a card reader that may read a magneticstrip of a credit card or an embedded chip (e.g., an EMV chip) of acredit card.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary embodiment of computing device 120. As shown,first computing device 120 may include input/output (“I/O”) device 220,memory 230 containing operating system (“OS”) 240 and program 250 andall associated components as described above with respect to rewardsmanagement device 110. Computing device 120 may also have one or moreprocessors 210, a geographic location sensor (“GLS”) 304 for determiningthe geographic location of computing device 120, a display 606, whichmay include one or more of a display screen (such as a smart phonetouchscreen) and/or an augmented or virtual reality display (such anaugmented/virtual reality headset), and an environmental data (“ED”)sensor 308 for obtaining environmental data including audio and/orvisual information representing a physical environment. In someembodiments, environmental data sensor 608 may include a microphone or adigital camera. According to some embodiments, memory 230 of computingdevice 120 may include cardholder database 260 and/or customerpreferences database 270 that may store some or all of the same type ofinformation described above with respect to rewards management device110. Computing device 120 may also include a digital wallet 380. As willbe understood by those of skill in the art, digital wallet 380 may besoftware that provides security and encryption for personal informationand account information (such as a credit card number) to allowtransactions. For example, digital wallet 380 may store digitalrepresentations of one or more credit cards of a user. Digital wallet380 may be configured to wirelessly convey credit card information(e.g., card number, expiration date, customer name, security code, etc.)and/or authentication information (e.g., pin numbers, biometricverification information, etc.) to merchant POS terminal 130 (e.g., vianear-field communication) to facilitate a financial transaction.

According to some embodiments, computing device 120 may include software(e.g., program 250) that may allow a customer to add or remove financialaccount numbers such as credit card numbers to and from the digitalwallet 380. In some embodiments, digital wallet 380 may store one ormore tokenized financial account numbers (e.g., a tokenized credit cardnumber). For example, as will be understood by those of skill in theart, a tokenized credit card number may include a surrogate value (i.e.,a token) for the primary account number (PAN) of a credit card.Traditionally, a tokenized credit card number may map to a single creditcard. However, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, atokenized credit card number may map to or be associated with aplurality of credit card numbers that may be stored by the system (e.g.,by rewards management device 110). In such cases, when a tokenizedcredit card number is used to initiate a transaction (e.g., via merchantPOS terminal 130), the system (e.g., rewards management device 110) mayautomatically select (e.g., by executing predetermined rules configuredto maximized preferred rewards received from a transaction) a creditcard associated with the tokenized credit card number to execute thetransaction or the system may be configured to present the customer withthe option to select a credit card from a group of credit cardsassociated with the tokenized credit card number. Thus, in someembodiments, computing device 120 may include software that isconfigured to do one or more of: allow a user to specify which creditcards (or other payment accounts) are associated with a tokenizedfinancial account number, allow a user to input preferences and/or rulesthat may specify which payment accounts or types of rewards the customerprefers to use under various specified conditions, and present the userwith an option to select from a plurality of payment accounts to executea transaction based on the associated rewards offered by each account(e.g., in response to the system receiving a plurality of provisionaltransaction authorizations corresponding to the plurality of paymentaccounts).

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of method 400 for providing rewards-basedpayment method selection. Method 400 may be performed by rewardsmanagement device 110 using processor 210 to execute memory 230. In someembodiments, steps of method 400 may be delegated to other elements insystem 100, such as the computing devices 120, merchant POS terminal 130and/or payment authorization servers 140 (e.g., 140 a-140 n). Followingmethod 400, a customer may optimize the rewards received in associationwith a purchase in response to system 100's facilitation of theplacement of rewards bids by a plurality of payment card issuers inassociation with the transaction.

At block 410, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maystore a plurality of payment account numbers in association with atokenized financial account number. For example, rewards managementdevice 110 may store multiple credit card numbers that are associatedwith a particular customer. According to some embodiments, rewardsmanagement device 110 may receive user inputs (e.g., via computingdevice 120) that may allow a user to specify payment account numbers(e.g., credit card numbers) that the user is associated with or owns. Insome embodiments, this information may be received from computing device120, in response to, for example, computing device 120 taking digitalimages of a user's credit cards or otherwise inputting credit cardinformation into computing device 120 and/or digital wallet 280. In someembodiments, rewards management device 110 may store a tokenized creditcard number that is associated with the stored multiple credit cardnumbers such that receipt and processing of the tokenized credit card inassociation with an attempted transaction may cause rewards managementdevice 110 to automatically select or provide the customer with theability to select one of the multiple stored credit cards to execute thetransaction. According to some embodiments, each payment account numberof the plurality of payment account numbers may be associated with apurchase-based rewards program. For example, a first credit card numbermay be associated with a 1% cash back rewards program, a second creditcard number may be associated with an air miles rewards program, and athird credit card number may be associated with a rewards program thatprovides rewards points that may be redeemed for items, services orcredits against account balances. It will be appreciated that these aremerely examples and that there may be any number of different types ofrewards programs that may provide different types of rewards (i.e., cashback, air miles, redeemable points, account credits, or other such typesof rewards), rates of rewards, conditions under which earned rewards mayvary, terms of rewards programs (e.g., expiration of rewards, balancepayment requirements for earning rewards, rewards points values based onuse (e.g., a point used on travel may be worth twice as much of a pointused on purchase of goods), initial spend bonuses (e.g., if a userspends more than $1000 in the first three months of opening the cardthey will receive a bonus), and other such differences) or other suchrewards program information. In some embodiments, rewards managementdevice 110 may be configured to communicate with card issuer systems toreceive such rewards program information and/or rewards types. Forexample, rewards management device 110 may intermittently (e.g., once aday, once a week, once a month, etc.) communicate with card issuerservers associated with stored payment account numbers to receive and/orupdate the nature of the rewards earned by the card (i.e., type ofrewards, percentages, special conditions (for example, 5% cash back ongas stations during the first quarter of the year), and other suchinformation sufficient to determine the nature and amount of a rewardthat would be earned in association with a transaction and/or anyredemption conditions). In some embodiments, the information about therewards programs may be input by a user (e.g., via computing device120).

At block 420, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) mayreceive user rewards preferences associated with the tokenized financialaccount number. For example, in some embodiments, rewards managementdevice 110 may receive user rewards preferences from computing device120. In some embodiments, a user may input user rewards preferences intocomputing device 120 via a software application that allows the user tospecify relative priorities of rewards. For example, a user may specifythat generally, the user prefers 1% cash back over 1 air mile per dollarspent, but that if the air mile per dollar of a transaction accountexceeds a specified threshold (e.g., 3 air miles per dollar spent), thenthe user may then prefer the card that receives the air miles. Accordingto some embodiments, rewards management device 110 may reduce the valueof each reward offered by each card to a common unit of comparison. Forexample, a common unit of comparison may be “value in dollars per $100spent.” In a case where a user has three credit cards, where credit cardA offers 2% cash back on all purchases, credit card B offers 1% cashback on all purchases and 5% cash back on purchases made at gas stationsduring a specified portion of the calendar year, and credit card Coffers 2 air miles per dollar spent, it may not be immediately obviouswhich card would offer the best benefit for a given transaction. Thus,in this example, rewards management device 110 may translate each rewardinto a common unit of “value in dollars per $100 spent.” Accordingly, inthis example, rewards management device 110 may determine that thereward value offered by credit card A is $3.00, the reward value offeredby credit card B is $1.50 if the transaction does not take place at agas station during the specified time frame or $7.50 if it does, andthat the reward value offered by credit card C is also $3.00. Accordingto some embodiments, rewards management device 110 may determine theidentity of the merchant or the type of merchant (e.g., gas station,grocery store, etc.) by using the merchant category code (MCC) that ispart of the transaction authorization request generated by merchant POSterminal 130 based on the attempted transaction. Thus, rewardsmanagement device 110 may determine whether any rewards conditions(e.g., 5% cash back for purchases made in first quarter at gas stations)by determining one or more of the type of merchant at which theattempted purchase is being made (e.g., based on the MCC code), theidentification of the merchant (e.g., the name of the store, for examplebased on correlating the MCC code with location data or other knowndata), the location (e.g., by receiving location data from computingdevice 120 (e.g., a mobile device) associated with the user of thecredit card), the date and time (e.g., determined from the timestamp ofthe purchase request), and/or SKU data obtained from, for example,receiving a picture of the receipt and performing image recognition onthe receipt to determine the purchased items and prices and correlatingthe items with categories. According to some embodiments, whenpurchasing a plane ticket, the purchase request may include thedestination city and city of origin associated with the purchasedflight. In some embodiments, rewards management device 110 may convertair miles (or other non-monetary rewards) to a monetary sum by comparingthe air miles to the price of goods. So, for example, if a flight thatcan be purchased with 30,000 air miles costs $300 on the open market,rewards management device 110 may infer that the monetary value of anair mile is $0.01, and thus a reward of 2 air miles per dollar appliedto an expenditure of $150 would be equivalent to a total of $3.00 inmonetary value. According to some embodiments, rewards management device110 may obtain cost information (e.g., the cost of a flight in dollarsand air miles) from one or more websites or merchant servers to use inmaking such determinations. In some embodiments, rewards managementdevice 110 may automatically intermittently update this cost information(e.g., daily, weekly, etc.). In some embodiments, a user may input aweighting preference to make adjustments to the valuations. For example,a user may input that they value air miles twice as much as cash, inwhich case rewards management device 110 may utilize this user-specifiedweighting to instead determine that the value of the air miles from thetransaction would instead be a value of $6.00 to the user. In someembodiments, a user may input preferences relating to certain minimumsor time frames of use in relation to a card. For example, a user mayspecify that they want to use a first credit card until they have spenta predetermined amount (e.g., the first $100), or that they want to usea particular card for a predetermined time (e.g., the next month). Insome embodiments, a user may input preferences for using certain creditcards with particular merchants or types of merchants. For example, auser may specify that they prefer to use a first card at gas stationsand a second card at grocery stores. In some embodiments, a user mayinput preferences for using one or more credit cards when traveling forwork. In some embodiments, system 100 may determine that a user istraveling for work by, for example, tracking the GPS location ofcomputing device 120 associated with the user and possiblycross-referencing the location against calendar entries that containinformation that indicates the user is taking a work trip during thetime in question. In some embodiments, if system 100 determines that theuser is far away from home (e.g., based on location data of computingdevice 120), system 100 may initiate a message or prompt to be sent tocomputing device 120 of user that may ask whether they are traveling forwork and the user may input a response that may indicate whether theyare on a work trip or not. According to some embodiments, such a promptmay be presented after a credit card or tokenized credit card has beenpresented for payment in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Thus, in some embodiments, upon receiving a purchase requestgenerated from a user's credit card, system 100 may ping computingdevice 120 associated with user to determine the user's location byobtaining location data (e.g., GPS data). According to some embodiments,rewards management device 110 may automatically select a card to use inthe transaction by selecting the card associated with the highestdetermined rewards value based on the user preferences. In someembodiments, rewards management device 110 may cause the determinedvalues to be presented to the user so that the user may make a selectionof an associated financial account to use for the transaction.

At block 430, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) mayreceive, from a merchant POS terminal 130, a primary transactionauthorization request generated by the merchant POS terminal 130 basedon an attempted transaction made in association with the tokenizedfinancial account number. For example, as will be understood by those ofskill in the art, a user may input a tokenized financial account numberto merchant POS terminal 130 in association with an attemptedtransaction by using, for example, near-field communication to conveythe tokenized financial account number to the merchant POS terminal 130from digital wallet 380 of computing device 120.

At block 440, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maygenerate, based on the primary transaction authorization request and theplurality of financial account numbers, a plurality of provisionaltransaction authorization requests. According to some embodiments, eachof the plurality of provisional transaction authorization requests maycorrespond to one of the plurality of payment account numbers. Forexample, when a user submits a tokenized financial account number to themerchant POS terminal 130 in association with a transaction, themerchant POS terminal 130 may generate a primary transactionauthorization request that represents a request to a financial serviceprovider or card issuer to either authorize or deny the attemptedtransaction in association with the tokenized financial account number,which merchant POS terminal 130 may transmit to rewards managementdevice 110 for processing. Upon receiving the primary transactionauthorization request, rewards management device 110 may determine aplurality of financial account numbers that are associated with thetokenized financial account number (e.g., a plurality of credit cards)and may then generate a corresponding plurality of provisionaltransaction authorization requests for each financial account number.For example, if rewards management device 110 determines that thetokenized financial account number is associated with a user havingcredit cards A, B and C, then rewards management device 110 may generatethree provisional transaction authorization requests, each of which thatcorrespond to one of credit card A, B, or C.

At block 450, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maytransmit the plurality of provisional transaction authorization requeststo one or more payment authorization servers. For example, to continueon with the previous case, if credit cards A, B and C each come from adifferent card issuer, rewards management device 110 may send aprovisional transaction authorization request to a first paymentauthorization server 140 a, a second payment authorization server 140 band a third payment authorization server 140 c, respectively, where eachof the payment authorization servers 140 a,b,c correspond to arespective card issuer. Each provisional transaction authorizationrequest may include the credit card number and the transactioninformation (i.e., amount of transaction, merchant category code,timestamp, etc.). In some embodiments, the provisional transactionauthorization request may appear to a payment authorization server to bethe same as a traditional payment authorization request that would havebeen generated if the associated credit card had just been swiped atmerchant POS terminal 130 to begin with. In some embodiments, theprovisional transaction authorization request may include data thatindicates that the provisional transaction authorization request isoriginating from rewards management device 110. As will be understood bythose of skill in the art, the respective payment authorization servers140 may determine whether the attempted transaction would be authorizedand if so, may each generate a provisional transaction authorization tosend back to rewards management device 110 in response. If one or morepayment authorization servers 140 determine that the attemptedtransaction would not be authorized (e.g., because the user is overtheir credit limit on a particular credit card), then the paymentauthorization server (e.g., 140 a) may generate a transaction rejectionmessage to send back to rewards management device 110 in response, whichmay indicate that the attempted transaction has been denied with respectto that financial account/credit card. According to some embodiments,one or more of the provisional transaction authorizations generated bythe payment authorization servers 140 may include a respective rewardsbid that the card issuer may make based on, for example the nature ofthe attempted transaction and/or information about the consumer (e.g.,prior purchasing history of customer, whether the customer pays on time,whether the card issuer has been losing the customer's business overtime, whether the customer's purchase volume has been increasing ordecreasing, profitability of the customer (e.g., institutionally),customer's fit with a target demographic or profile, credit performanceof customer's segment (e.g., based on demographics, behavior, and/orlocation), etc.). For example, if credit card A normally offers 2% cashback on all purchases, the card issuer associated with credit card A maydecide that, based on one or more of the amount of the transaction, themerchant associated with the transaction or data associated with thecustomer associated with the transaction (e.g., the customer's paymenthistory, average balance, credit score, and the like), that for thisparticular transaction, the card issuer would be willing to offer thecustomer 3% cash back instead of the usual 2% cash back. Accordingly,the provisional transaction authorization generated by the paymentauthorization server 140 associated with the issuer of credit card A mayinclude a rewards bid of 3% cash back in this example. According to someembodiments, merchant POS terminal 130 may transmit data additionalpurchase data that may be used by payment authorization servers 140 indetermining a rewards bid to offer, such as SKU data that indicates theitems that are being purchased by the customer. For example, aparticular card issuer may, for example, offer a higher reward for onetype of item being purchased than another.

At block 460, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) mayreceive a plurality of provisional transaction authorizations from theone or more payment authorization servers. According to someembodiments, and as described above, each of the plurality ofprovisional transaction authorizations may correspond to one of theplurality of payment account numbers and may include a respectiverewards bid associated with the attempted transaction. Thus, in someembodiments, rewards management device 110 may receive a plurality ofprovisional transaction authorizations that each have an associatedrewards bid. In some embodiments, a rewards bid may replace the typicalreward offered by a credit card (or other financial account) with areward that may be applied to only the pending transaction. Rewardsmanagement device 110 may calculate the relative values of the receivedrewards bids in a manner similar to that as described previously aboveto allow for a comparison of the value of each rewards bid. In someembodiments, a rewards bid may represent a rewards offer comprising oneor more of a cash back amount or percentage, a number of travel mile(such as air miles) credits, or a number of rewards points offered inassociation with use of a particular payment account for the attemptedtransaction.

At block 470, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) mayselect a preferred payment account number based on the user rewardspreferences and the respective rewards bids associated with theplurality of provisional transaction authorizations. According to someembodiments, selecting the preferred payment account number may compriseautomatically selecting, as the preferred payment account number, apayment account associated with a respective rewards bid having ahighest value from among the respective rewards bids associated with theplurality of provisional transaction authorizations. In someembodiments, the highest value may be determined based on the userrewards preferences. For example, as described above, in someembodiments, rewards management device 110 may be configured todetermine the value of each rewards bid (e.g., the value in dollars) inrelation to the attempted transaction. In some embodiments, thedetermined values may be modified based on the rewards preferences ifthe user has specified a relative value as between two types of rewards(e.g., the user specifies that they value air miles twice as much ascash back). In some embodiments, based on the determined values and theuser rewards preferences, the system may automatically select thepayment account or credit card with the highest determined rewardsreturn as being the preferred payment account number. According to someembodiments, the preferred payment account number may be one of theplurality of payment account numbers that corresponds to a provisionaltransaction authorization. In other words, if the system (e.g., rewardsmanagement device 110) receives a transaction rejection message inrelation to a particular credit card (or other payment account) thenrewards management device 110 may eliminate that credit card fromconsideration when selecting the preferred payment account number.

In some embodiments, selecting the preferred payment account number maycomprise transmitting information indicative of the respective rewardsbids corresponding to the provisional transaction authorizations and thepreferred payment account to a user device (e.g., computing device 120)and receiving a selection of a verification of the preferred paymentaccount number from the user device. For example, in some embodiments,the preferred payment account number may not be automatically selectedby the system, but rather, may be selected by the user via user input(e.g., via user input to software application of reward managementdevice 110) after the user is presented with the options (e.g., theprovisionally authorized credit cards and their associated rewardsbids).

At block 480, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maytransmit a transaction authorization message to the merchant POSterminal to authorize the attempted transaction. According to someembodiments, rewards management device 100 may transmit the transactionauthorization message based on a provisional transaction authorizationof the plurality of provisional transaction authorizations thatcorrespond to the preferred payment account number. According to someembodiments, rewards management device 110 may generate a transactionauthorization message associated with the preferred payment accountnumber upon the system determining the preferred payment account numberor upon receiving a user selection of the preferred payment accountnumber. For example, if the system determines credit card B has thehighest (or, based on user preferences, most preferred) value rewardsbid such that credit card B is selected as the preferred payment accountnumber, then rewards management device 110 may generate a transactionauthorization message authorizing the transaction to be performed usingcredit card B. The transaction authorization message may be transmittedto merchant POS terminal 130 and/or payment authorization server 140 bfor processing. Rewards management device 110 may generate one or morepayment cancellation messages corresponding to the financial accountsthat were provisionally authorized but not selected as the preferredpayment account number. For example, if credit cards A and C are notselected as the preferred payment account number, rewards managementdevice 110 may generate payment cancellation messages to that may betransmit to payment authorization servers 140 a and 140 c, respectively,to cancel the previously provisionally authorized transactions. In thisway, the system may determine which credit cards are authorized for use,gather rewards bids associated with each credit card, select a preferredcredit card based on an evaluation of the rewards bids in view of anyrelevant user rewards preferences, and authorize the transaction to becompleted using the selected preferred credit card while cancelling theprovisionally authorized transactions to the remaining unselected creditcards. Accordingly, in some embodiments, method 400 may further includetransmitting the payment authorization message to a first server 140 aof the one or more payment authorization servers 140, the first serverbeing associated with the preferred payment account and transmitting oneor more payment cancellation messages to one or more second servers 140b,c of the one or more payment authorization servers, the one or moresecond servers 140 b,c being associated with payment accountscorresponding to provisional transaction authorizations other than thepreferred payment account.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of another exemplary method 500 for providingrewards-based payment method selection. Method 500 may be performed byrewards management device 110 using processor 210 to execute memory 230.In some embodiments, steps of method 500 may be delegated to otherelements in system 100, such as the computing devices 120, merchant POSterminal 130 and/or payment authorization servers 140 (e.g., 140 a-n).Following method 500, a customer may optimize the rewards received inassociation with a purchase in response to system 100's facilitation ofthe placement of rewards bids by a plurality of payment card issuers inassociation with the transaction.

At block 510, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maystore a plurality of payment account numbers in association with atokenized financial account number in a manner similar to that describedabove with respect to block 410. According to some embodiments, thetokenized financial account number may represent a proxy for theplurality of payment account numbers. For example, as described above, atokenized financial account number may be associated with a plurality ofstored payment account numbers.

At block 520, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) mayreceive, from a merchant POS terminal, a primary transactionauthorization request generated by the merchant POS terminal based on anattempted transaction made in association with the tokenized financialaccount number in a manner similar to that described above with respectto block 430.

At block 530, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maygenerate, based on the primary transaction authorization request and theplurality of financial account numbers, a plurality of provisionaltransaction authorization requests in a manner similar to that describedabove with respect to block 440. According to some embodiments, each ofthe plurality of provisional transaction authorization requests mayrepresent a request to a payment authorization server 140 to provide anindication of whether a payment account number associated with theprovisional transaction authorization request would be authorized foruse to complete the attempted transaction. For example, as will beunderstood by those of skill in the art, payment authorization server140 may apply a set of rules to the transaction data (e.g., amount,merchant category code, timestamp, location data, etc.) and customerprofile (e.g., available credit line, payment history, etc.) todetermine whether or not to authorize the attempted transaction.

At block 540, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maytransmit the plurality of provisional transaction authorization requeststo one or more payment authorization servers 140 in a manner similar tothat described above with respect to block 450.

At block 550, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) mayreceive a plurality of provisional transaction authorizations from theone or more payment authorization servers 140. According to someembodiments, each of the plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations may correspond to one of the plurality of payment accountnumbers as described previously above.

At block 560, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) mayreceive a plurality of rewards bids from the one or more paymentauthorization servers 140. According to some embodiments, each rewardsbid of the plurality of rewards bids may be associated with a respectivepayment account number of the plurality of payment account numbers thatcorresponds to one of the plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations. For example, for each credit card owned by the customer,the respective credit card issuer may generate a rewards bid associatedwith the credit card for application to the attempted transaction andthe respective payment authorization server 140 may incorporate therewards bid into the provisional authorization sent back to the rewardsmanagement device 110. In some embodiments, a rewards bid may representa rewards offer comprising one or more of a cash back amount, a numberof travel mile credits, an account credit, or a number of rewards pointsoffered in association with use of a particular payment account for theattempted transaction.

According to some embodiments, receiving the plurality of rewards bidsmay include steps of receiving at least a first rewards bid associatedwith a first payment account number from a first payment authorizationserver 140 a and a second rewards bid associated with a second paymentaccount number from a second payment authorization server 140 b,transmitting the second rewards bid to the first payment authorizationserver 140 a, transmitting the first rewards bid to the second paymentauthorization server 140 b, and receiving one or more of an updatedfirst rewards bid associated with the first payment account and anupdated second rewards bid associated with the second payment accountfrom the respective payment authorization servers 140 a,b. In otherwords, in some embodiments, the system may allow one or more credit cardissuers to see the rewards bids of competing credit card issuers toallow the credit card issuers to revise their rewards bid. For example,if a rewards bid for credit card A is 3% cash back on the purchase andthe rewards bid for credit card B is 3.5% cash back on the purchase, thecredit card issuer of credit card A may receive the rewards bid of 3.5%offered by the card issuer of credit card B and may then decide torevise its rewards bid to, for example 4.0% cash back, whereas creditcard B may not change its offer upon learning that the first card issueronly initially offered 3.0%. According to some embodiments, thisexchange of rewards bids may occur multiple times to allow for multiplerevisions in rewards bids offers, thereby creating a real-timecompetitive rewards bid auction. In some embodiments, the rewards bidsmay be finalized after a predetermined number of bids or bid revisions.In some embodiments, the rewards bids may be finalized after apredetermined amount of time has passed.

At block 570, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maytransmit one or more of the plurality of rewards bids to a user device(e.g., computing device 120). For example, rewards management device 110may notify computing device 120 that the offered rewards bid for creditcard A is 4.0% cash back, the offered rewards bid for credit card B is3.0% and the offered rewards bid for credit card C is 3 air miles perdollar spent. In some embodiments, the values of the respective rewardsbids may be displayed by computing device 120 to the user based on thetransaction data (e.g., transaction amount, merchant identity,timestamp, etc.), so that the user may make a selected of a preferredpayment account to use for the transaction.

Although this method describes transmitting one or more of the pluralityof rewards bids to a user device (e.g., computing device 120), it shouldbe understood that in some embodiments, the one or more rewards bid maybe alternatively transmitted to merchant POS terminal 130 for display tothe user. For example, a user may be checking out at a self-checkoutkiosk, and the self-checkout kiosk may be configured to display the oneor more of the plurality of rewards bids to the user and allow the userto input a selection of a preferred card.

At block 580, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) mayreceive an indication of a selection of a preferred payment accountnumber from among the plurality of payment account numbers from the userdevice (e.g., computing device 120). According to some embodiments, thepreferred payment account number may correspond to a payment accountnumber that is associated with one of the one or more of the pluralityof rewards bids.

At block 580, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maytransmit a transaction authorization message to the merchant POSterminal 130 to authorize the attempted transaction. According to someembodiments, transmitting the transaction authorization message may bebased on a provisional transaction authorization corresponding to thepreferred payment account number. For example, as previously describedabove, in some embodiments, the system may be configured to only allow auser to select a preferred payment account from the payment accountsthat received a provisional transaction authorization (as opposed to atransaction rejection message).

In some embodiments, method 500 may further include transmitting thepayment authorization message to a first server 140 a of the one or morepayment authorization servers 140 and transmitting one or more paymentcancellation messages to one or more second servers 140 b of the one ormore payment authorization servers 140. According to some embodiments,the first server 140 a may be associated with the preferred paymentaccount and the one or more second servers 140 b may be associated withpayment accounts corresponding to provisional transaction authorizationsother than the preferred payment account. According to some embodiments,the one or more payment cancellation messages may represent respectiveinstructions to cancel a provisional authorization of the attemptedtransaction in association with a corresponding payment account number.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of another exemplary method 600 for providingrewards-based payment method selection. Method 600 may be performed byrewards management device 110 using processor 210 to execute memory 230.In some embodiments, steps of method 600 may be delegated to otherelements in system 100, such as the computing devices 120, merchant POSterminal 130 and/or payment authorization servers 140 (e.g., 140 a-n).Following method 600, a customer may optimize the rewards received inassociation with a purchase in response to system 100's facilitation ofthe placement of rewards bids by a plurality of payment card issuers inassociation with the transaction.

At block 610, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maystore a plurality of payment account numbers in association with atokenized financial account number in a manner similar to that describedabove with respect to block 410.

At block 620, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) mayreceive, from a merchant POS terminal, a primary transactionauthorization request generated by the merchant POS terminal based on anattempted transaction made in association with the tokenized financialaccount number in a manner similar to that described above with respectto block 430.

At block 630, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maygenerate, based on the primary transaction authorization request and theplurality of financial account numbers, a plurality of provisionaltransaction authorization requests in a manner similar to that describedabove with respect to block 440.

At block 640, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maytransmit the plurality of provisional transaction authorization requeststo one or more payment authorization servers in a manner similar to thatdescribed above with respect to block 450.

At block 650, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) mayreceive a plurality of provisional transaction authorizations from theone or more payment authorization servers in a manner similar to thatdescribed above with respect to block 550. According to someembodiments, each of the plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations may correspond to one of the plurality of payment accountnumbers.

At block 660, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maytransmit a temporary transaction authorization message to the merchantPOS terminal to authorize the attempted transaction. According to someembodiments, the transmission of the temporary transaction authorizationmessage may be based on the plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations. For example, a rewards management device 110 maygenerate a temporary transaction authorization message in response toreceiving at least one provisional transaction authorization from theone or more payment authorization servers 140 because the existence ofat least one provisional transaction authorization may indicate that thetransaction is capable of being executed by at least one paymentaccount. In some embodiments, the temporary transaction authorizationmessage may not specify a payment account number. For example, in someembodiments, the temporary transaction authorization may just indicatethat there is at least one payment account that will authorize thetransaction and therefore the transaction may proceed. In someembodiments, the temporary transaction authorization message may specifya default payment account number corresponding to a provisionaltransaction authorization of the plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations. For example, if three credit cards have beenprovisionally authorized to carry out the transaction, rewardsmanagement device 110 may select one of the provisionally authorizedcredit cards to be included in the temporary transaction authorizationmessage. In some embodiments, the default payment account number may beautomatically selected based on stored user preferences. In someembodiments, the temporary transaction authorization message may providean indication to the merchant POS terminal 130 that the transaction willbe authorized (e.g., by virtue of the fact that the system has receivedat least one provisional transaction authorization), but that the finalpayment method has not yet been selected. This may allow a customer toquickly proceed through a checkout line of a merchant without holding upthe line to make a selection of a preferred payment card. Thus, the useof the temporary transaction authorization message may allow a user tomake a purchase at a merchant POS terminal 130 and exit the store withtheir goods, while allowing the decision of the preferred payment methodto be made after the fact. This delay may also allow the competitivebidding process between payment card issuers to carry on for an extendedperiod of time to allow for more bids to be generated.

At block 670, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) mayreceive a transaction execution message from merchant POS terminal 130indicating that the attempted transaction has been executed. Forexample, as described above, the temporary transaction authorizationmessage provided to merchant POS terminal 130 may provide merchant POSterminal 130 with assurances that the transaction is authorized and willbe executed at a future time based on a selection of one of one or moreprovisionally authorized payment methods.

At block 680, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) mayreceive a plurality of rewards bids associated with the payment accountnumbers corresponding to the plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations. For example, in some embodiments, a customer may input atokenized financial account number at merchant POS terminal 130 toinitiate a transaction, and based on merchant POS terminal's 130 receiptof a temporary transaction authorization message, merchant POS terminal130 may provisionally process the payment for the purchase to allow thecustomer to check out and leave the store, and the customer may then bepresented (e.g., via a software application on computing device 120)with one or more payment methods (e.g., provisionally authorized creditcards) and their associated rewards bids from which to select apreferred payment account number (i.e., preferred credit card).

According to some embodiments, receiving a plurality of rewards bids mayinclude receiving, from the one or more payment authorization servers140, respective initial rewards bids associated with each paymentaccount number that corresponds to a provisional transactionauthorization. In other words, each provisional transactionauthorization may have an associated initial rewards bid that isassociated with the corresponding payment account number (e.g., creditcard number). Each initial rewards bid may be received from a respectiveoriginating payment authorization server 140 from among the one or morepayment authorization servers 140 a-n. For example, each credit card maybe from a different credit card issuer which may be processed by adifferent payment authorization server 140. The method may furtherinclude transmitting, for each initial rewards bid, the initial rewardsbid to one or more competitor payment authorization servers 140. Thecompetitor payment authorization servers 140 may be a subset of the oneor more payment authorization servers 140 that exclude the respectiveoriginating payment authorization server 140. In other words, if acustomer has credit cards A, B, and C, rewards management device 110 mayreceive a provisional transaction authorization from a first paymentauthorization servers 140, a second payment authorization server 140 band a third payment authorization server 140 c, associated with creditcards A, B, and C respectively. Each provisional transactionauthorization may include a respective initial rewards bid. Then, insome embodiments, the initial rewards bids associated with credit cardsB and C may be sent the first payment authorization server 140 a, theinitial rewards bids associated with credit cards A and C may be sent tothe second payment authorization server 140 b, and the initial rewardsbids associated with credit cards A and B may be send to the thirdpayment authorization server 140 c, such that each credit card issuermay view the rewards bids from its competitors. The method may includereceiving, from the one or more payment authorization servers 140, oneor more updated rewards bids, wherein each updated rewards bidcorresponds to an initial rewards bid that has been updated followingthe transmission of one of the one or more of the initial rewards bids.In some embodiments, method may further include transmitting the updatedrewards bids to the user device. Thus, according to some embodiments,the system may allow the card issuers to see competing rewards bids andupdate their rewards bids to provide competition among the card issuers.According to some embodiments, this process of providing bids tocompetitors and allowing rewards bids to be revised and updated mayoccur multiple times before the rewards bids are finalized.

At block 690, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maytransmit the plurality of rewards bids corresponding to the provisionaltransaction authorizations to a user device (e.g., computing device 120)in a manner similar to that described above with respect to block 570.

At block 695, the system (e.g., via rewards management device 110) maytransmit a transaction settlement message to the merchant POS terminal130. According to some embodiments, transmission of the transactionsettlement message may be based on a provisional transactionauthorization corresponding to the preferred payment account number. Insome embodiments, transmission of the transaction settlement message mayoccur in response to receiving an indication of a selection of apreferred payment account number from among the plurality of paymentaccount numbers that correspond to the rewards bids from the userdevice. In other words, if the user selects credit card A as thepreferred payment account number from a group comprising credit cards A,B, and C, then rewards management device 110 may generate a transactionsettlement message to merchant POS terminal 130 indicating that creditcard A is the selected payment method and the transaction that wasauthorized by the temporary transaction authorization message should becompleted and settled using credit card A. As will be understood bythose of skill in the art, each credit card that provisionallyauthorizes the transaction will temporarily remove available credit fromthe account associated with the card, but when one card is selected toexecute the transaction, that card will have the transaction amountcharged against the account whereas the non-selected cards will have theremoved available credit restored upon the provisional authorizationsbeing cancelled by cancellation messages. In some embodiments, thereceipt of the indication of a selection of a preferred payment accountnumber may occur after receiving the transaction execution message. Forexample, as previously described above, the system may allow a user tocheck out at a merchant POS terminal 130 before having made a selectionof which credit card account to charge the transaction such that thetransaction may be executed in the sense that the merchant has allowedthe purchase, but may not yet be fully complete in the sense that thecharge has not yet been assigned to a particular payment account.Accordingly, in some embodiments, the transaction settlement message mayinclude an instruction to the merchant POS terminal to charge thetransaction to the preferred payment account number.

In some embodiments, method 600 may further include initiating anexpiration timer in response to receiving the transaction executionmessage. For example, in some embodiments, the system may provide theuser with a predetermined amount of time following checking out at themerchant POS terminal 130 by which the user must make a selection of apreferred payment account number, or else the system may automaticallyselect a preferred payment account number. Thus, in some embodiments,method 600 may further include, in response to the expiration timerexpiring prior to receiving the indication of the selection of thepreferred payment account number, automatically selecting (e.g., byrewards management device 110), as the preferred payment account number,a default payment account number from among the plurality of paymentaccount number. According to some embodiments, method 600 may furtherinclude transmitting a transaction settlement message to the merchantPOS terminal 130, for example, following a selection of a preferredpayment account number. In some embodiments, the transmission of thesettlement message may be based on a provisional transactionauthorization corresponding to the preferred payment account number. Forexample, the settlement message may incorporate the provisionaltransaction authorization received from the payment authorization server140 that corresponds to the selected preferred payment account number.In some embodiments, rewards management device 110 and/or merchant POSterminal 130 may generate and transmit a payment authorization messageto the corresponding payment authorization server 140 to cause thecorresponding payment authorization server 140 to execute thetransaction and debit the associated financial account with the cost ofthe purchase made at the merchant POS terminal 130.

Although the preceding description generally describes rewardsmanagement device 110 serving as an intermediary between merchant POSterminal 130 and the plurality of payment authorization servers 140, itshould be understood that much or all of the functionality performed byrewards management device 110 may be alternatively carried out bymerchant POS terminal 130 and/or computing device 120.

As used in this application, the terms “component,” “module,” “system,”“server,” “processor,” “memory,” and the like are intended to includeone or more computer-related units, such as but not limited to hardware,firmware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or softwarein execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited tobeing, a process running on a processor, an object, an executable, athread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way ofillustration, both an application running on a computing device and thecomputing device can be a component. One or more components can residewithin a process and/or thread of execution and a component may belocalized on one computer and/or distributed between two or morecomputers. In addition, these components can execute from variouscomputer readable media having various data structures stored thereon.The components may communicate by way of local and/or remote processessuch as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets,such as data from one component interacting with another component in alocal system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as theInternet with other systems by way of the signal.

Certain embodiments and implementations of the disclosed technology aredescribed above with reference to block and flow diagrams of systems andmethods and/or computer program products according to exampleembodiments or implementations of the disclosed technology. It will beunderstood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, respectively, can be implemented by computer-executableprogram instructions. Likewise, some blocks of the block diagrams andflow diagrams may not necessarily need to be performed in the orderpresented, may be repeated, or may not necessarily need to be performedat all, according to some embodiments or implementations of thedisclosed technology.

These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded onto ageneral-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a processor, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particularmachine, such that the instructions that execute on the computer,processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus create meansfor implementing one or more functions specified in the flow diagramblock or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be storedin a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meansthat implement one or more functions specified in the flow diagram blockor blocks.

As an example, embodiments or implementations of the disclosedtechnology may provide for a computer program product, including acomputer-usable medium having a computer-readable program code orprogram instructions embodied therein, said computer-readable programcode adapted to be executed to implement one or more functions specifiedin the flow diagram block or blocks. Likewise, the computer programinstructions may be loaded onto a computer or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to cause a series of operational elements or stepsto be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus toproduce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions thatexecute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide elementsor steps for implementing the functions specified in the flow diagramblock or blocks.

Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams supportcombinations of means for performing the specified functions,combinations of elements or steps for performing the specifiedfunctions, and program instruction means for performing the specifiedfunctions. It will also be understood that each block of the blockdiagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the blockdiagrams and flow diagrams, can be implemented by special-purpose,hardware-based computer systems that perform the specified functions,elements or steps, or combinations of special-purpose hardware andcomputer instructions.

Certain implementations of the disclosed technology are described abovewith reference to user devices may include mobile computing devices.Those skilled in the art recognize that there are several categories ofmobile devices, generally known as portable computing devices that canrun on batteries but are not usually classified as laptops. For example,mobile devices can include, but are not limited to portable computers,tablet PCs, internet tablets, PDAs, ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs), wearabledevices, and smart phones. Additionally, implementations of thedisclosed technology can be utilized with internet of things (IoT)devices, smart televisions and media devices, appliances, automobiles,toys, and voice command devices, along with peripherals that interfacewith these devices.

In this description, numerous specific details have been set forth. Itis to be understood, however, that implementations of the disclosedtechnology may be practiced without these specific details. In otherinstances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not beenshown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of thisdescription. References to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “someembodiments,” “example embodiment,” “various embodiments,” “oneimplementation,” “an implementation,” “example implementation,” “variousimplementations,” “some implementations,” etc., indicate that theimplementation(s) of the disclosed technology so described may include aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic, but not everyimplementation necessarily includes the particular feature, structure,or characteristic. Further, repeated use of the phrase “in oneimplementation” does not necessarily refer to the same implementation,although it may.

Throughout the specification and the claims, the following terms take atleast the meanings explicitly associated herein, unless the contextclearly dictates otherwise. The term “connected” means that onefunction, feature, structure, or characteristic is directly joined to orin communication with another function, feature, structure, orcharacteristic. The term “coupled” means that one function, feature,structure, or characteristic is directly or indirectly joined to or incommunication with another function, feature, structure, orcharacteristic. The term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or.”Further, the terms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to mean one or moreunless specified otherwise or clear from the context to be directed to asingular form. By “comprising” or “containing” or “including” is meantthat at least the named element, or method step is present in article ormethod, but does not exclude the presence of other elements or methodsteps, even if the other such elements or method steps have the samefunction as what is named.

While certain embodiments of this disclosure have been described inconnection with what is presently considered to be the most practicaland various embodiments, it is to be understood that this disclosure isnot to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, isintended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangementsincluded within the scope of the appended claims. Although specificterms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptivesense only and not for purposes of limitation.

This written description uses examples to disclose certain embodimentsof the technology and also to enable any person skilled in the art topractice certain embodiments of this technology, including making andusing any apparatuses or systems and performing any incorporatedmethods. The patentable scope of certain embodiments of the technologyis defined in the claims, and may include other examples that occur tothose skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be withinthe scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do notdiffer from the literal language of the claims, or if they includeequivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from theliteral language of the claims.

Exemplary Use Cases

The following exemplary use case describes an examples of a typical userflow pattern. They are intended solely for explanatory purposes and notin limitation. A user may have three credit cards that may each offerdifferent rewards. For example, credit card A may offer 2% cash back onall purchases, credit card B may offer 1% cash back on all purchases but5% cash back on purchases at select merchants based on the time of year,and credit card C may offer 2 air miles per dollar spent. The user mayhave a smart phone (e.g., computing device 120) that has a digitalwallet and a mobile application that allows the user to inputpreferences for rewards. For example, the user may input that theycurrently value air miles twice as much as cash back because they aresaving for an airfare. The digital wallet may store a tokenized creditcard number that represents the set of credit cards A, B, and C. Theuser may make a purchase at a store (e.g., via merchant POS terminal130) by providing the tokenized credit card number to merchant vianear-field communication. The store (e.g., via merchant POS terminal130) may transmit the tokenized credit card number to a processingserver (e.g., rewards management device), which may then identify creditcards A, B and C based on the received tokenized credit card number. Theprocessing server may then generate and send payment authorizationrequests to the payment authorization servers 140 (e.g., paymentauthorization servers 140 a,b,c) associated with credit cards A, B and Cand receive provisional authorizations that indicate that the user isauthorized to use any of the three credit cards to complete thepurchase. Likewise, the user may alternatively swipe credit card A atthe merchant and upon receiving the authorization request, the system(e.g., rewards management device 110) may, based on the associationbetween credit cards A, B and C, nonetheless generate and send paymentauthorization requests to all three credit card issuers. The paymentauthorization servers may, in response to receiving information aboutthe attempted transaction (e.g., amount, merchant, time, etc.) andinformation about the customer (e.g., payment history, current balance,etc.), provide a specialized rewards bid for the transaction. Forexample, whereas credit card A normally provides 2% cash back on allpurchases, the credit card issuer may decide that it is worth offering3% cash back for this purchase. The system may receive rewards bidsassociated with one or more of the credit cards and then may select thecredit card that is offering the best (or, based on the userpreferences, most preferred) reward in association with the purchase andthen may execute the transaction with the selection card. In someembodiments, prior to selecting the best credit card, the system (e.g.,via rewards management device 110) may provide the offered rewards bidsto the competing card issuers to allow for one or more rounds ofupdating bids to provide a competitive auction. In some embodiments,instead of automatically selecting the best credit card, the system(e.g., via rewards management device 110) may provide the user with theoption to select from the group of authorized credit cards with theassociated rewards bids (e.g., via computing device 120 or merchant POSterminal 130). In some embodiments, the system may even allow the userto make this selection after the user has checked out and left thestore. For example, the system may provide the user with 30 minutes topick a credit card with which to finalize the purchase transactionbefore the system times out and automatically picks a credit card forthem. In this way, the system may allow the user to make a consideredchoice of rewards following an auction-process that allows the cardissuers to modify the rewards offered in association with thetransaction without forcing the user to hold up the checkout line whilethe auction and credit card selections are being carried out.

These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded onto ageneral-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a processor, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particularmachine, such that the instructions that execute on the computer,processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus create meansfor implementing one or more functions specified in the flow diagramblock or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be storedin a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meansthat implement one or more functions specified in the flow diagram blockor blocks. As an example, implementations of the disclosed technologymay provide for a computer program product, including a computer-usablemedium having a computer-readable program code or program instructionsembodied therein, said computer-readable program code adapted to beexecuted to implement one or more functions specified in the flowdiagram block or blocks. Likewise, the computer program instructions maybe loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processingapparatus to cause a series of operational elements or steps to beperformed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce acomputer-implemented process such that the instructions that execute onthe computer or other programmable apparatus provide elements or stepsfor implementing the functions specified in the flow diagram block orblocks.

As used herein, unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinaladjectives “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., to describe a commonobject, merely indicate that different instances of like objects arebeing referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects sodescribed must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, inranking, or in any other manner.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of providing rewards-based paymentmethod selection, the method comprising: storing a plurality of paymentaccount numbers in association with a tokenized financial accountnumber, each payment account number of the plurality of payment accountnumbers being associated with a purchase-based rewards program;receiving user rewards preferences associated with the tokenizedfinancial account number; receiving, from a merchant POS terminal, aprimary transaction authorization request generated by the merchant POSterminal based on an attempted transaction made in association with thetokenized financial account number; generating, based on the primarytransaction authorization request and the tokenized financial accountnumber, a plurality of provisional transaction authorization requests,each of the plurality of provisional transaction authorization requestscorresponding to one of the plurality of payment account numbers;transmitting, to one or more payment authorization servers, theplurality of provisional transaction authorization requests; receiving,from the one or more payment authorization servers, a plurality ofprovisional transaction authorizations, each of the plurality ofprovisional transaction authorizations corresponding to one of theplurality of payment account numbers and including one or morerespective rewards bids associated with the attempted transaction;normalizing the one or more respective rewards bids based on a commonfactor, wherein the common factor is the value of the respective rewardsbids in dollars per $100 dollars spent; selecting, based on the userrewards preferences and the one or more respective rewards bidsassociated with the plurality of provisional transaction authorizations,a preferred payment account number, the preferred payment account numberbeing one of the plurality of payment account numbers corresponding to aprovisional transaction authorization; and transmitting, to the merchantPOS terminal, a transaction authorization message to authorize theattempted transaction.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein a rewards bidrepresents a rewards offer comprising one or more of a cashback amount,a number of travel mile credits, or a number of rewards points offeredin association with use of a particular payment account for theattempted transaction.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting thepreferred payment account number comprises automatically selecting, asthe preferred payment account number, a payment account associated witha respective rewards bid having a highest value from among therespective rewards bids associated with the plurality of provisionaltransaction authorizations.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein thehighest value is determined based on the user rewards preferences. 5.The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting: the transactionauthorization message to a first server of the one or more paymentauthorization servers, the first server being associated with thepreferred payment account number; and one or more payment cancellationmessages to one or more second servers of the one or more paymentauthorization servers, the one or more second servers being associatedwith payment accounts corresponding to provisional transactionauthorizations other than the preferred payment account number.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, wherein selecting the preferred payment accountnumber comprises: transmitting, to a user device, information indicativeof the respective rewards bids corresponding to the provisionaltransaction authorizations and the preferred payment account number; andreceiving, from the user device, a selection of a verification of thepreferred payment account number.
 7. A system of providing rewards-basedpayment method selection, the system comprising: at least one processor;and at least one memory, having stored thereon: a plurality of paymentaccount numbers in association with a tokenized financial accountnumber, each payment account number of the plurality of payment accountnumbers being associated with a purchase-based rewards program, andinstructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, controlsthe at least one processor to: receive user rewards preferencesassociated with the tokenized financial account number; receive, from amerchant POS terminal, a primary transaction authorization requestgenerated by the merchant POS terminal based on an attempted transactionmade in association with the tokenized financial account number;generate, based on the primary transaction authorization request and thetokenized financial account number, a plurality of provisionaltransaction authorization requests, each of the plurality of provisionaltransaction authorization requests corresponding to one of the pluralityof payment account numbers; transmit, to one or more paymentauthorization servers, the plurality of provisional transactionauthorization requests; receive, from the one or more paymentauthorization servers, a plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations, each of the plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations corresponding to one of the plurality of payment accountnumbers and including one or more respective rewards bids associatedwith the attempted transaction; normalize the one or more respectiverewards bids based on a common factor, wherein the common factor is thevalue of the respective rewards bids in dollars per $100 dollars spent;select, based on the user rewards preferences and the one or morerespective rewards bids associated with the plurality of provisionaltransaction authorizations, a preferred payment account number, thepreferred payment account number being one of the plurality of paymentaccount numbers corresponding to a provisional transactionauthorization; and transmit, to the merchant POS terminal, a transactionauthorization message to authorize the attempted transaction.
 8. Thesystem of claim 7, wherein a rewards bid represents a rewards offercomprising one or more of a cashback amount, a number of travel milecredits, or a number of rewards points offered in association with useof a particular payment account for the attempted transaction.
 9. Thesystem of claim 7, wherein selecting the preferred payment accountnumber comprises automatically selecting, as the preferred paymentaccount number, a payment account associated with a respective rewardsbid having a highest value from among the respective rewards bidsassociated with the plurality of provisional transaction authorizations.10. The system of claim 9, wherein the highest value is determined basedon the user rewards preferences.
 11. The system of claim 7, wherein theinstructions, when executed by the at least one processor, furthercontrols the at least one processor to transmit: the transactionauthorization message to a first server of the one or more paymentauthorization servers, the first server being associated with thepreferred payment account number; and one or more payment cancellationmessages to one or more second servers of the one or more paymentauthorization servers, the one or more second servers being associatedwith payment accounts corresponding to provisional transactionauthorizations other than the preferred payment account number.
 12. Thesystem of claim 7, wherein selecting the preferred payment accountnumber comprises: transmitting, to a user device, information indicativeof the respective rewards bids corresponding to the provisionaltransaction authorizations and the preferred payment account number; andreceiving, from the user device, a selection of a verification of thepreferred payment account number.
 13. A non-transitory computer readablemedium having stored thereon instructions for executing a method ofproviding rewards-based payment method selection, the method comprising:storing a plurality of payment account numbers in association with atokenized financial account number, each payment account number of theplurality of payment account numbers being associated with apurchase-based rewards program; receiving user rewards preferencesassociated with the tokenized financial account number; receiving, froma merchant POS terminal, a primary transaction authorization requestgenerated by the merchant POS terminal based on an attempted transactionmade in association with the tokenized financial account number;generating, based on the primary transaction authorization request andthe tokenized financial account number, a plurality of provisionaltransaction authorization requests, each of the plurality of provisionaltransaction authorization requests corresponding to one of the pluralityof payment account numbers; transmitting, to one or more paymentauthorization servers, the plurality of provisional transactionauthorization requests; receiving, from the one or more paymentauthorization servers, a plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations, each of the plurality of provisional transactionauthorizations corresponding to one of the plurality of payment accountnumbers and including one or more respective rewards bids associatedwith the attempted transaction; normalizing the one or more respectiverewards bids based on a common factor, wherein the common factor is thevalue of the respective rewards bids in dollars per $100 dollars spent;selecting, based on the user rewards preferences and the one or morerespective rewards bids associated with the plurality of provisionaltransaction authorizations, a preferred payment account number, thepreferred payment account number being one of the plurality of paymentaccount numbers corresponding to a provisional transactionauthorization; and transmitting, a transaction authorization message toauthorize the attempted transaction.
 14. The computer readable medium ofclaim 13, wherein a rewards bid represents a rewards offer comprisingone or more of a cashback amount, a number of travel mile credits, or anumber of rewards points offered in association with use of a particularpayment account for the attempted transaction.
 15. The computer readablemedium of claim 13, wherein selecting the preferred payment accountnumber comprises automatically selecting, as the preferred paymentaccount number, a payment account associated with a respective rewardsbid having a highest value from among the respective rewards bidsassociated with the plurality of provisional transaction authorizations.16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the highest valueis determined based on the user rewards preferences.
 17. The computerreadable medium of claim 13, wherein the method further comprisestransmitting: the transaction authorization message to a first server ofthe one or more payment authorization servers, the first server beingassociated with the preferred payment account number; and one or morepayment cancellation messages to one or more second servers of the oneor more payment authorization servers, the one or more second serversbeing associated with payment accounts corresponding to provisionaltransaction authorizations other than the preferred payment accountnumber.
 18. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein selectingthe preferred payment account number comprises: transmitting, to a userdevice, information indicative of the respective rewards bidscorresponding to the provisional transaction authorizations and thepreferred payment account number; and receiving, from the user device, aselection of a verification of the preferred payment account number.